History Influence from the Annales School Lucien Febvre and
Fernand Braudel were members of the
École des Annales, the dominant school of historical analysis in France during the
interwar period. However, this school of thought was contested by the growing importance of the social sciences and the beginning of
structuralism. Under pressure from
Claude Lévi-Strauss, in particular, they integrated new contributions from the fields of
sociology and
ethnography to event-based historical analysis, a concept put forward by the Annales school, to advocate for the concept of "a nearly imperceptible passage of history". They were reproached, along with the structuralists, for ignoring
politics and the individual's influence over his fate during a period in which the colonial wars of liberation were taking place. The work of
Braudel,
Le Roy Ladurie and other historians working under their influence greatly affected the research and official teaching of history in France beginning in the 1960s. The work of
Jean-Marie Pesez renewed interest in the issue of methodology in medieval archeology and created the idea of "material culture".
François Hartog, who serves as the director of the school's ancient and modern
historiography department, is also noted for proposing that the problems of modern time schema are not entirely caused by an imperialist past. He is also known for challenging the
Eurocentric reflection of history and the present.
New History During the 1970s, EHESS became the center of
New History under the influence of
Jacques Le Goff and
Pierre Nora. During this period, a generation of ethnologists working under the ideas of
Georges Balandier and
Marc Augé were critical of the French colonial tradition and applied modern sociological concepts to third world countries.
New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship In 2019, held the
New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship conference. The conference was disrupted by Polish nationalists. EHESS President,
Christophe Prochasson, said he could not recall such a violent disturbance at any scientific conference. Minister
Frédérique Vidal condemned Polish authorities.
Sociology Pierre Bourdieu,
Luc Boltanski,
Alain Touraine,
Jean-Claude Passeron have all been associated with EHESS.
Economics EHESS has always been a central place for economic debate in Europe. In France this debate is also enabled by the proximity of the researchers in Paris with national economic institutions: In this sense EHESS's advisors who have been drawn from economic professors have enjoyed a large media audience (one notable example was
Jean Fourastié). The diversity of viewpoints has been a priority, and liberal and Marxist economists have had the chance to debate in EHESS. Since the 1970s and 1980s EHESS has focused on quantitative economics, with classes led by well-known professors such as Louis-André Gérard-Varet, Jean-Jacques Laffont, François Bourguignon and Roger Guesnerie. They initiated not only the Paris School of Economics but the Toulouse School of Economics and Grequam (Aix-Marseille). ==Domestic and foreign networks==